Relentless optimists, the two major Hispanic broadcast networks, Univision and Telemundo, continue to aggressively pitch the power of national TV—or at least their particular brand of it—to advertisers in the current upfront sales marketplace. The problem is, just as with their English-language network competitors, both networks realize it’s most likely going to be a down year in revenue.

“There’s still a whole lot of uncertainty about the marketplace, and Spanish-language television is not immune,” acknowledges David Lawenda, Univision sales president.

“However, we are encouraged because we have seen over the last six months a dollar shift from English-language to Spanish-language television in several categories. The Hispanic market is still growing. It just may not grow as much as it has in past years during the upfront.”

Some $1.6 billion was spent on the Hispanic nets in the upfront last year. While that total could be down by as much as 10 percent this year, Lawenda says, “If the upfront is down, we think we can make it up during the season in scatter.”

Equally determined is Telemundo’s senior vp, network sales and marketing Mike Rodriguez, who is pushing hard to offer advertisers custom product integration packages in the network’s novelas, which it produces at its own studios. “Every client is looking to get a better return on their ad dollars,” Rodriguez says, “and our model enables us to offer them customized solutions tailored to their specific brands.” Rodriguez adds that Telemundo over the past few years has cut product placement deals in its novelas for packaged goods, wireless phones, automotive and retail categories.

Univision touts the fact that, for this just completed TV season, it finished fourth among all broadcast networks in adults 18-34 ratings, according to Nielsen Media Research, beating CBS and The CW. In the May sweeps, Univision even beat all the broadcast nets in delivery of the demo. In its core adults 18-49 demo, Univision also registered a gain, up 3 percent for the season.



So was Telemundo, which saw its 18-49 ratings surge 17 percent in prime time (granted, off a smaller audience base). Effective April 23, the NBC Universal-owned net also began airing all its novelas in high definition, which helped the network get prime positioning on cable channel HD tiers. For example on Time Warner Cable in Bergen County, N.J., just outside of New York City, Telemundo is positioned between Fox and ABC on the HD tier.

Not to be outdone—the two networks are fiercely competitive on all fronts—Univision plans
to air all of its 2010 World Cup telecasts in high-def for the first time. And with the ratings success of the 2006 World Cup, the network expects to bring in hundreds of millions in ad revenue—the network secured some $180 million for its coverage of the 2006 games.
Univision’s coverage will include 56 live games, with the remaining eight on sibling network TeleFutura. Both TeleFutura and Univision’s cable network Galavisión will rebroadcast 52 games.

Telemundo is not expected to televise any live Winter Olympics coverage airing on sibling NBC. Telemundo president Don Browne explains that winter sports are just not as popular among Hispanic viewers. But Rodriguez adds that the network compensates with plenty of regular season and playoff soccer from Mexico.

A big chunk of Telemundo’s upfront dollars will come from ad sales in its novelas, where each is wide open for product integration possibilities. The new Telemundo novelas for next season include Ninos Ricos, Pobres Padres, about a poor girl and her mother forced to move from Mexico to the U.S. to live with a rich aunt; Perro Amor, about two cousins and lovers; Rosalinda y Primitivo, about two half brothers who fall in love with the same woman; Reina del Sur, based on the book about a female drug lord; Victorinos, about three men born on the same day named Victorino; and El Clon, about a man who dies and is cloned back to life 22 years later.

Univision’s novela lineup includes Atrevete a Sonar, about a kind but ugly girl who by chance meets her estranged father, a doctor; Un Gancho al Corazon, an adventure comedy about an ex-stock car champion racer who meets a female boxer; En Nombre del Amor, a family drama about two sisters who fall in love with the same man; Sortilegio, about a woman who falls in love and marries a man with a dual identity; and Verano de Amor, about a group of friends who grow up together in a seaside town.

Jackie Hernandez, Telemundo COO, says the network plans to use IAG viewer engagement data, in which Telemundo novelas scored well, to motivate advertisers to consider customized product placements.



Univision’s Lawenda believes the momentum of advertisers continuing to cross their brands from English-language to Hispanic TV will continue. “General Mills has gone from advertising two brands with us to 14, and recently after running some spots for Honeynut Cheerios in our shows, their sales increased by 35 percent,” he says. “Those types of success stories can help us bring in more business from all advertisers.”

Regardless of whether they spend money in the upfront or in scatter, packaged goods, fast food, health & beauty, soft drinks and wireless are among Hispanic TV strongest-spending ad categories. “We’ve got most of the big guys in, but we don’t have every one of their brands,” Lawenda says.

But he and Rodriguez, his counterpart at Telemundo, know they have their work cut out to score deals with reluctant categories including autos, retail and financial, as well as pharmaceuticals.

One way both networks hope to secure gains in these economically challenging times is to sell the power of the Hispanic market more than to sell against one another, despite years of duking it out on several fronts. “We’re still part of a growing market,” Lawenda says. “Hispanics make close to $1 trillion in purchases every year, and 77 percent of U.S. Hispanics speak Spanish at home.”

Rodriguez notes too that there are 45 million Hispanics in the U.S.,  representing one in six people in the U.S., offering clients a broader reach than some realize.

Helping both networks’ case is that there remain only a handful of Hispanic networks, dominated by these Big Two, whereas in the general market, hundreds of networks are fishing in the same big pond.



One of those few Hispanic network rivals is two-year-old V-Me, which tried to drum up some attention for itself as an alternative to both Univision and Telemundo. At its upfront presentation in New York two weeks ago, the network presented new research from Simmons that shows V-me viewers have higher household incomes ($75,000-plus) and that they spend more on things like cars, electronics, home improvement, furniture and brand name products, compared to other U.S. Spanish-language networks.

“Clients are looking for alternatives,” notes Carmen DiRienzo, president and CEO. She believes that the Simmons research demonstrates that V-me programming has “brought people to Spanish-language TV who hadn’t been there before. That was part of our premise when we first developed our program strategy. There’s a lot of genres that aren’t on the older [Spanish-language] networks that tend to attract a more quality audience.”

New York-based V-me announced a new batch of shows and vignettes, including a new 10-hour “docu-reality” series from Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions that takes viewers inside the carrier U.S.S. Nimitz during its wartime deployment to the Persian Gulf.

The net also unveiled new series revolving around parenting, music and nature. The network said it was on track to reach 80 percent of U.S. Hispanic households by the end of 2009. —with Steve McClellan of Adweek